More than two years after he relinquished he first UFC title, Sean Strickland is the middleweight champion again. In a razor-thin split decision over rival Khamzat Chimaev, Strickland’s striking and takedown defense pushed him over the edge on two of the three judges scorecards in the main event of UFC 328 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The most-entertaining fight of the night, though, was the co-main event, in which Joshua Van defended his men’s flyweight title against a game opponent in Tatsuro Taira. The action was nonstop from the first punch. Multiple times, Taira looked to be badly hurt, but he withstood the pressure and put his own on the champion, until Van’s left hand finally put Taira out in the fifth round.
Brett Okamoto, Andreas Hale and Jeff Wagenheim broke down all the action from UFC 328 in Newark.
